A prediction method for thermal conductivity of alternative refrigerants in the liquid phase

Abstract

A prediction method for the thermal conductivity of halocarbon refrigerants in the saturated liquid state in the reduced temperature range 0.3 to well above 0.9 is presented in this paper. The aim of the method is to present a very simple calculation of the transport property useful for engineering purposes. The method determines thermal conductivity as a sole function of the reduced temperature and requires the knowledge of a parameter dependent upon easily available physical constants characteristic of each compound. The method is validated against experimental data available in the literature, giving average absolute deviations which are usually less than 5%, with maximum absolute deviations generally less than 10%. An extension of the method to estimate thermal conductivity of binary mixtures is also presented, along with a comparison with the few experimental data available in the literature.